


What You Shouldn't Know

by wonderlandiscrumbling



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Ed's past, Gen, M/M, Mental Illness, Secrets, mentions of past violence, season three, slight mentions of past child abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-29
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2020-03-29 10:57:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19018507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonderlandiscrumbling/pseuds/wonderlandiscrumbling
Summary: Oswald regrets asking Gabe to find out background information on Ed the second that he receives the file.





	What You Shouldn't Know

Once you know something you can’t go back to before, back before you learned some new truth in life. Oswald desperately wishes he could wind back, not tell Gabe to find background information on Ed. It was a stupid breach of trust to dig into his closest friend’s past, but it was typical for him to do background searches on those in his employ or even his friends.

This was Ed though, Ed’s crimes he knew about, he’d been the first-person Ed had been able to with a breath of relief tell him about his multiple homicides. He knew Ed’s life from all he could gather had been dull as Hell before he went off the deep end and murdered a cop. He had expected Gabe would return to him with no files, no information, yet he’d come back with a thick folder filled with paperwork and newspaper clippings.

Reports from Ed’s school about his behavior, his lack of speaking, his shyness, the occasional cheating on tests. There were notes about him coming to school with bruises, black eyes, ponderings between the faculty about whether this should be reported. Digging a page further he found a report that at age ten Ed had grabbed a rock in the playground, snuck up behind another boy and bashed him in the head with the stone, the teacher had pried him off kicking and screaming wildly. After that incident it appeared, he’d been expelled, had begun seeing a psychiatrist until his father ceased the sessions for undisclosed reasons. 

Then came the newspaper articles, the headlines about Dr. Stephen Nashton; he’d lost his medical license for severe malpractice, there were even whispers of him being placed on trial for violations he’d committed as a surgeon. This though wasn’t about that, this was about him murdering his wife, the only witness being their then fourteen-year-old son; Edward Gene Nashton. 

He reads and re-reads the articles, the notes, all of it; he reads notes from thugs under Gabe’s employ that had followed Ed, witnessed him visiting Black Gate prison to visit a prisoner. He knows without having to be told that Ed’s been visiting his father, he almost wonders why, wonders if perhaps he feels some deep-seated guilt for testifying against his own father. 

“Oswald?”

He jumps clutching the papers tightly pulling them against his chest as he looks up at Ed with wide eyes. There’s a thought in his head that he should just chuck the folder into the fireplace behind him, burn the evidence and then lie about what it is. Ed’s eyes are locked on the folder, he swallows and steps forward reaching out for it. Oswald keeps a white knuckled grip on the folder wanting to plead with him to not ask about it, to not grab it from him.

“What is that?”

“I-it’s nothing, just…Where have you been?” He changes the subject, his voice catches and he feels nervous.

Ed’s eyes flicker back to his face, he looks weary as if he’s realizing he’s being kept on the outside of something important. Oswald knows how quickly paranoid Ed can become when kept out of things.

“I was taking care of some unfinished business; I know I said I’d be back home by three, but my watch stopped working and well I forgot my phone in my room.” He rambles on, pushes his glasses back up the bridge of his nose and lets out a deep sigh.

“That’s perfectly fine,” Oswald says forcing a smile, he attempts to relax his muscles to seem at ease as if he isn’t hiding things from him. “I need to finish up in here, if you want to go ahead into the office, I’ll be in there in a minute.” 

Ed doesn’t budge he looks back at the folder then up at his friend, he begins to speak as if to protest, to question what exactly it is that he’s keeping from him. Oswald wants to tell him he’s hiding a lot from him; that he fucked up and found out things about him that he knows he shouldn’t know, that he’s developing feelings for him and at this rate he isn’t sure if he even deserves a chance with him or not. He wants to rewind to before the folder was placed on his desk, he wants to smack himself for ever thinking it was okay to research Ed’s background looking for clues into who he was before.

“Okay, I’ll see you in a couple of minutes then.” He speaks hesitantly, there’s a look on his face as he looks at Oswald again, it’s this almost heartbroken plea that he just tells him what’s going on.

Ed trust him, he’s trusted him from the very first moment they met each other. 

He waits until Ed’s out of sight to turn and toss the folder into the fireplace. What Ed doesn’t know won’t hurt their bond.


End file.
